Is a Gerneral Election the only way to break the Brexit gridlock?

Today MPs voted to extend the Brexit deadline but also voted (by about 80%) not to have a second referendum. May has pretended to offer labour MPs a deal and offered almost nothing, gone back to Brussels to renegotiate what couldn't be renegotiated and failed. Tory MPs voted to have a leadership contest but then voted to (more or less) keep her in place.

Its a PM with no authority, leading a party with no majority trying to deal with a complex historically important issue which nobody in the country can agree on. We can't extend the deadline forever and something has to give. I think eventually there will be some kind of Brexit but not a hard Brexit and nobody will be happy.

The twin truths are that the referendum voted to leave the EU and that there is no mandate to change that. Also that Brexit is more complex than anyone imagined and that it can't deliver what it promised.

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room101 · 51-55, M

A General Election would achieve nothing because, every party is so fractured on the issue of our EU membership that it would very much be a case of SSDD. With, possibly, a different brand at the helm.

The simple fact is that Parliament doesn't know what it wants. That wont change all because of a General Election.

Burnley123 · 41-45, M

@room101 That is not an unreasonable point but do you have a better idea?

room101 · 51-55, M

@Burnley123 The same idea that I've had all along. It's twofold.

1. Parliament to accept the referendum result. Regardless of how disastrous that result was. And to mitigate that disaster by:

2. Parliament to unite behind the government so that realistic changes could be put to the EU on the Withdrawal Agreement. Which was drafted by the EU, NOT Theresa May.

Obviously the staunch Brexiteers won't do this but, in terms of Parliamentary numbers, there are enough Remainers to make it work. I would also argue that there are enough level headed Brexiteers who could be persuaded that a "No Deal Brexit" is the wrong way to go. We've seen that in the recent Parliamentary debates and votes.